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Saturday, January 28, 2012

There are no coincidences...

I don't believe in coincidences...Everything happens for a reason.

We may not always understand or appreciate it at the time, and it may be connected to something in the future rather than the present, but if you are open and observant to such happenings they will happen more often, and you will enjoy a more abundant and meaningful life…that's the way it's meant to be.

In the coming posts I will be sharing some of the experiences that I have appreciated in recent years, and more so since I started my journey with Sanctuary Resorts.

As you may know I am based in Hong Kong, and my mother called me the other day from the UK, and interestingly, mentioned that there is a study being undertaken by a Cambridge University Professor on this very subject, which propelled me to share these happenings on my Blog, and also in my upcoming book. I will add these postings to the research site as well.

I thought I would start these posts with an interesting happening some years ago.

Before leaving my corporate position with Marco Polo Hotels, and starting the process of setting up Sanctuary Resorts I had an unexpected meeting with my friend Ronnie Ng. I had first met Ronnie a few years earlier when he was engaged as the first outside trainer for our Rotary International District Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) program. Subsequently Ronnie conducted some training programs for the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel, and it was during this time that we reconnected. We had some interesting conversations in between the programs and during one of them I remarked that I admired the style of jacket Ronnie was wearing, as it was casual, and while it had a Mandarin style collar, it was more contemporary in design. Ronnie thought it would look good on me and suggested next time I had a suit made I get one similar.

A few months later it was time to get a new suit, and to be honest I “chickened out”, and when my tailor, Andy, asked me what sort of suit I would like, I just said “my usual,” meaning a classic style double-breasted black suit. Interestingly he then said, “Actually Mr. Jones I am making a new style of suit for another client of mine, that I think would really suit you”…and he brought out a black suit with a jacket that was nearly identical to the one Ronnie wore! I just knew it was meant to be and had one made the same…

(To be clear the other client was not Ronnie and my tailor didn’t know Ronnie).

There is more to this story, but perhaps I will save that for my Book…